Thanks for your replies.
I chose to post on this forum because if I would to post on either BASSA or CrewForum, both with very harsh attitudes, about my confusion as to whether how I should vote, they would have given me "wake up and smell the coffee" response. I remember on one occassion when I said I was confused about how to vote and a so called colleague asked me if I was stupid and I'm a bit concerned I would get the same response at any of those forums. For some crew it's obvious how to vote and many of them made up their minds around a year ago. I don't blame them for having made up their minds. I wish I wasn't confused but there are far too many mixed messages from both BA and UNITE. One of my friends said that I could at least vote yes to support the majority and still go to work but I could never do that. I want to vote for what I believe in. And, I have been following this thread for a very long time and there are a lot of valuable and informative points.
BA's proposal is fair and they have removed many of their previous suggestions i.e. removing double night stops at some destinations. They probably realised that we would be hitting our 900 hours quicker and be more tired and affected by jetlag. They probably knew that many crew were concerned about having to sit at home on 24HR for weeks. BASSA suggested B2B to the Middle East and I am not the smartest person on earth but I have never understood how Middle East B2B could save any money when you think about having to accommodate all of the crews in LHR, pay them B2B allowance and 3 days off as opposed to 2 days now which trips to the Middle East gives. It wasn't accepted so there's no really point for me to bring it up. It just came to my mind.
I'm not denying that service in Club World hasn't been affected. I meant that the service in all other cabins, in my experience, haven't been affected because the crew levels are the same and the service hasn't changed. BA says that their most important customers are travelling in Club World and it makes sense that the CSD has been put to work there. Yes, the service takes a lot longer and the CSD is not available to deal with other things which what they have done before. The crew in Club World do work very hard and even harder after the immposition but we knew this would happen if an agreement hadn't been reached before November 16th. It doesn't mean that I'm happy with it but this is where we are today and we have to deal with it accordingly. I don't think the solution is to take a hostile attitude towards the passengers who are de facto paying our wages and what makes BA stay in business. There is a lot of competition and they could easily choose another airline and abandon BA for good. I think the same would be with a strike. Again, I'm not the smartest person on earth but I think a strike in these times would have very little support from the public because many have lost their jobs and struggling financially. Like, my mother is one of them and she has moved in with me because she hasn't been able to get another one. To go on a strike would perhaps be thought of as a bit "luxury" and that we should be glad to at least have a job to go go. There are many of them who would happily take them.
Fincastle84 asked a couple of questions.
Will BA making any money with their aircraft sitting on the ground? No.
Will the employees have a job if BA fails? No.
Even if BA survives, will your loyal customers return? I don't know. Some of them would. Some of them wouldn't. With so much competition and many airlines with better service they can just sit down and happily pick somebody else to fly with.
Another issue is if you were to go on a strike. Some say that you can't be sacked. Others say you can. I talked to one of BASSA's reps when I was in their office to discuss something else and they said BA can't sack if you and even if they could they wouldn't have the guts to do it. Mixed messages.
BA cabin crew are paid well and even though discussing money is taboo there's no point in denying this fact. Many do work very hard and are doing a very good job but improvements could be made. I'm having a go at EF again but that's where most of them could probably be made. It's a bit about efficiency and it could probably be bearable if negotiated properly.
I'm full-time crew and I can't work any more than what I do. Fortunately we have been able to avoid any CR for the time being but I would happily accept the 2.61% pay cut and work as many hours as I do today if it meant that I would keep my job. Some of my friends were recruited in 1997 when they introduced a new contract and they say it's easy for me to say this because I'm on the old contract recruited in 1996 and my basic is almost higher per month than what they earn including allowances. There's huge gap even though it's only a year and it might be easy for me to say it but I was recruited under those termsn. I can't help it. I can't afford to lose my job and I think all of us should be pleased that we've got one to go to. However BA is not asking for us to take a pay cut but a two year pay freeze which was suggested by UNITE. They are also asking us to work a bit harder. If it means that we will keep our jobs, I can't see the issue.
I wish that UNITE and BA would negotiate properly instead. It's very sad that it had to go this far because I, and probably many others, have been pushed into a corner not knowing what to do.
gl